Book 1 God
Chapter 1 God’s Existence and Attributes
Section 4. The Attributes of God
The God of emotion, intellect and will
14 What is the nature of God’s relationship with human beings? To have a relationship with human beings, He has to be a personal God. And in order to be a personal God, He should be like us. Human beings have mind and body. We can deduce the concept of God’s dual characteristics from the premise that God, as our Creator and original being, in order to share with us a common purpose, has to resemble us human beings. (167-244, 1987.07.21)
15 God, the Creator, would not create without purpose. Since human beings have emotion, intellect and will, it follows that God, our Creator, has to be the original being of emotion, intellect and will. (155-288, 1965.11.01)
16 God is a personal being. As a personal God, He has emotion, intellect and will. Thus, God and we can communicate with each other. For instance, when we laugh, God should be able to laugh. Then does the absolute God, who can do whatever He wants, shed tears? Yes, God also sheds tears. (203-221, 1990.06.26)
17 Today many Christians have the view that since God, the Creator, is a unique and absolute being in the position of the Most High, a being of supreme goodness, He cannot have a relationship with human beings, that is, beings that He created. In other words, they say that His creatures are profane, whereas He is absolute and divine. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of love, no matter how lofty and righteous God is, and no matter how lowly His creatures are, in order to share a love relationship they need to have the same qualities of character and heart. That is, God and human beings must be able to share the same heart. It means God naturally must have the same qualities as human beings. Hence human beings resemble Him, and we believers say, “God is our Father, and we are His children.” Saying this means that human beings resemble God. How does resemblance come about? It comes through the bloodline, the lineage. The fact that we are bound to God through lineage means that we bind to Him through love. (138-246, 1986.01.24)
18 God is a personal God, having emotion, intellect and will. Above all, this personal God desires love, so He created human beings as His object partners of love. Christian theology states that the Creator is sacred and His creatures are lowly, but this cannot be the whole story in light of the ideal of partnership, for the fulfillment of which God absolutely needs to find an ideal object partner of love. Since God is divine, the object partner of love whom this divine being is seeking also has to be divine. This is the basis for the privilege and authority of human beings. (143-151, 1986.03.17)
19 The final destination of philosophy is to find God. What God? The God who is absolute, unique and unchanging. But most of all He must be a personal God, because this is the kind of God that human beings need. In order to relate to us, God has to be a personal God who shares all our thoughts, ideals and desires, including both internal and external aspects. He has to be the One who can relate with us deeply in all dimensions—emotional, volitional and intellectual. Unless He can form a complete relationship with us, even though He exists He would really have nothing to do with us. From the perspective that God has to be a personal God, philosophers have been ignoring the most essential meaning of God. (138-142, 1986.01.21)
20 Love is what God needs, and He will love those who resemble Him. Therefore, to share love, God needs a partner with whom He can be pleased. If human beings are indeed God’s partners, it follows that God must have a personality that can harmonize one hundred percent with the attributes of human beings. God must be the One who can harmonize with all the elements of the body and mind. Hence, God must have emotion, intellect and will. (162-274, 1987.04.17)
21 When we look at God, we can see He is a personal God. Since He is the subject partner of human beings, He has the character to perfectly relate to us. If God is like this, He surely has His own views about morality in human relationships and the rules of conduct by which we should live. Just as we have views about morality that are based on human relationships and the human heart, God must have views about morality that are based on our relationship with Him and on His heart. God, as the subject being, has His own love and His own rules of conduct. Accordingly, human beings should possess love and uphold rules of conduct appropriate to being His object partners. It makes no sense to believe that human rules of conduct, morals and heart exist but divine rules of conduct, morals and heart do not. (065-025, 1972.11.13)
22 The I Ching says, “The cycle of change is the law of heaven; benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom are supreme in human nature,” showing that benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom are important. The I Ching explains the constant changes in nature, the cycle of the seasons, and the cyclical path of change in the universe. But it makes no mention of a personal God. Further, the Book explains the law of yin and yang in the natural world, but falls short with respect to love, lineage and perfection. It does not explain the being who, while existing as the harmonization of subject and object partners, and of internal character and external form, brings east, west, north and south into balance. (410-040, 2003.06.30)
23 The God who governs heaven and earth is a personal God. This personal God wants to become the Parent of an ideal family and, in the position of a husband and wife, lead the children to form a tribe, lead the tribe to form a nation, and then unite the world as one great family of God. Then the world will become one single people. Jesus’ proclamation that he was the Son of God was amazing. He also spoke of the bride and bridegroom. He taught us the highest standard that a person is to attain. John 14 explains the essence of this. Jesus also said he would come again. He must come again to find the bride and the bridegroom, form the family, tribe and nation, and unify the world. (370-063, 2002.02.19)
24 We cannot talk about love unless God is a personal God. God needs to have the same qualities of emotion and character as human beings. Christianity, alone among religions, reveals this God. Christians call God “Father” and “Jehovah.” That we can call God “Father” was a great discovery. (139-240, 1986.01.31)
Chapter 2 The God of Heart and True Love
Section 3. God Is Our True Parent
11 People like what resembles them. Thus, the ideal world should resemble God. How did God create heaven and earth in the beginning? Genesis 1:27 reads: “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” That God created man and woman in His image means that human beings resemble God. We like what resembles us, and because we resemble Him, God also likes us. God created all things in the universe. Looking at them brings Him happiness because they resemble Him. (26-167, 1969.10.25)
12 God is the Absolute Being; He is omniscient and omnipotent. But whom does God resemble? Since we are created in God’s image, God resembles us. God is a personal God and it is in that way that we say He resembles human beings. It is stated that human beings were created in God’s image, and certainly the Father God resembles His own children. If God resembles human beings, whom does that mean He resembles? God resembles woman and God resembles man. (070-047, 1974.02.08)
13 Whom do we resemble? We resemble God. From God’s vantage point, we resemble God; from our vantage point, God resembles us. In other words, in a father’s eyes, his son resembles him; in the son’s eyes, his father resembles him. God resembles us, and we resemble God. Whom do we resemble in terms of our desire? Our desire resembles God’s desire. Because our desire resembles God’s, we desire to own the best. God as the Absolute Being is the highest of all beings, so He does not want to settle for anything inferior. He wants the best. This is also true of our desire. (39-171, 1971.01.10)